Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi!

I have been offered the job of teaching some teenage French students, from France and I haven't got a clue what to do with them. They are coming here on a live and learn scheme but will also be seeing some British culture.

They are in small groups of four and I am teaching them from home so what resources do I need? They will be keeping a scrap book like diary during their stay and will also need recordings of them speaking English, (in what I would presume would be a role play scenario, )which is sent to their parents.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to teach them? I have been downloading lesson plans and none of them have any relevance to the subject. I don't really know the level they are at but judging by the letters they have sent me they are all different.

I think what I am mainly asking is what to concentrate on teaching e.g. grammar, vocabulary, reading writing.

Oh! and by the way I have done a TEFL course which was fanatstic help but when it comes to practice I havn't got a clue.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

BS

What will be most useful for these students in the short and long run is something like this:
being able to read signs, posters, menus, maps, etc..
being able to ask simple questions
being able to respond to simple questions
being able to pick up some meaning from listening to conversations or other auditory input.

So think about what sorts of things would be helpful if they knew how to be able to read or understand verbally? Think about all the things you are listening to or reading on a daily basis. You have a wealth of material all around you.

You can videotape shows or commerials on tv, script out the dialouge and go over it with them.

Read cerel boxes, ads, weather reports, greeting cards, comics...
Odds are they already know some English and since French and English are, I imagine, somewhat similar like Spanish and English, you can often read parts of a sentence without knowing English.

You can set up role plays where you give one person a set of questions where the other responds in English as much as they can. Roleplays based on real situations like: restaurant, job interview, talking about pets.... anything! If they don't know a lot of English, you might start them off by saying the questions and seeing if they can identify what was asked without responding.
Examples of questions for role play for talking about pets:
1. Do you have any pets?
2. Do you like cats or dogs or both? Why?
3. What kinds of pets do you like?
4. What kinds of pets have you had?
5. Do you plan on getting any new pets?


As far as the recordings, I record my students reading something. From this, every 2 weeks, I can note many advances in thier abilities from pronunciation to more "fluency" and flow in thier speech.